ABC3D: Pop-Up Alphabet

Here's a movie of the complete pop-up alphabet in a book by French designer, Marion Bataille. The book comes out in October 2008. Meanwhile, the little movie below is a great alphabet in its own right. I found this via the Drawn! blog at drawn.ca.




Remember that if you click the video to visit the YouTube site, there may be material there that is unsuitable for young viewers.


This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Animated Short: Gagarin

This film was made by Alexei Kharitidi in 1995. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. It is about a caterpillar who wants to fly. The hand-drawn animation is excellent. I found this film via Coldhardflash.com.




Remember that if you click the video to visit the YouTube site, there may be material there that is unsuitable for young viewers.


This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

YouTube Short Film Winner: My Name is Lisa

This is the winner of the short film competition at YouTube. It was directed by Ben Shelton and written by Ben and Josh Shelton. It is very simply produced with a hand-held camera. It is also a very good film. How nice to see a good film actually making it to the top of the heap as a result of viewer votes, and how unusual.

This film is not intended for very young viewers and has one instance of language that may require adult supervision before viewing.



Remember that if you click the video to visit the YouTube site, there may be material there that is unsuitable for young viewers.


This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Disney Scanning Fingertips of Children

It has come to my attention that the Walt Disney Company is scanning the fingertips of children and adults at Disney World. Doing this to anyone at any kind of business is shocking and completely unnecessary. Any system that takes an image of a fingertip and identifies someone by measuring its features is typically called a 'fingerprint.' Doing such a thing to children at an amusement park, no matter what Disney's excuse may be, forces Candlelight Stories to recommend that children be kept away from all Disney parks until the company can prove that all of these machines and the databases behind them have been removed and completely erased.


This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Goobies: Animated Candies Fight Epic Battle

Goobies is an animation by four students at the Texas A&M Viz Lab. It's about the land of candy inside a vending machine where terrible battles are fought between different candies. It's well-animated and fun to watch.

Go watch Goobies

This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Persepolis - The Making of the Animated Movie

Persepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi which, over the course of its two volumes, chronicles the life of a girl as she grows up in Iran and then moves into Western Europe. The novel is fascinating and has wonderful black & white art which tells the story in a completely unique way. The author is also co-director, along with Vincent Paronnaud, of the Oscar-Nominated animated film. There is an online movie about the making of the Persepolis film which is narrated by Satrapi and Paronnaud. I give the graphic novel and its beautiful film adaptation the highest of recommendations. This work is far beyond the level we are used to because when you find something like Persepolis you have found an actual artist with something to communicate.


You can buy the graphic novel of Persepolis here

This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Pirate Jack Novel at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

This is a really fun post to write because my book, Pirate Jack, has just been made available for purchase at Amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble web site. I wrote the book back in 2000 and offered it online as a series of email chapters that readers could subscribe to for free. Then I turned it into an audio podcast that listeners really seemed to enjoy. Recently, I decided to set it up as a paperback book with a reasonable price.

So now, if you want to read this crazy adventure, you can head over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to do so! If you buy it, have a great time reading it and let me know what you think right here.

Go buy Pirate Jack from Amazon.com

Go buy Pirate Jack from Barnes & Noble

This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com

Binta and the Great Idea: An Online Film

Binta and the Great Idea is a 2004 film by Javier Fesser that was nominated for an Academy Award. It is a story told by a small girl in Senegal about how her father has a great idea for his country and how the little girl's cousin wants to go to school against the wishes of her father. This is a film that presents the idea that there is something to learn from other cultures and that a healthy world means all kinds of unique people living together with understanding.

Go Watch Binta and the Great Idea

This blog entry comes from CandlelightStories.com